Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) -- A consultant and former intern at
Doug Whitman’s hedge fund testified an insider-trading trial
that he shared inside information with his ex-boss, who he said
was a mentor and a friend.

Wesley Wang, who worked Sigma Capital, a division of SAC
Capital Advisors LP, and Trellus Management Co. after leaving
Whitman Capital LLC in 2002, told jurors yesterday in Whitman’s
trial in Manhattan that the two exchanged tips on Cisco Systems
Inc., Polycom Inc. and Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Wang has
pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the government.

Prosecutors played wiretapped recordings and displayed
instant messages in which Wang and Whitman discuss stocks and
their sources of allegedly confidential information about
companies.

“Please stay quiet about it,” Wang said in a series of
instant messages to Whitman about information Wang testified he
had provided about Cisco Systems. “I’m getting paranoid. OK?
Just do what you need to do but don’t tell anyone.”

Wang’s testimony bolstered some allegations made earlier in
the trial by the government’s other cooperating witnesses, Karl
Motey and Roomy Khan, both of whom have also pleaded guilty.

Prosecutors claim Khan passed tips to Whitman on Google
Inc. and Polycom. Motey allegedly gave Whitman inside
information on Marvell. Whitman is charged with making almost $1
million for his hedge fund from trading on the tips.

Whitman denies wrongdoing in the case, claiming he traded
on information he believed to be legitimate research.

Wang’s Plea

Wang pleaded guilty last month to two counts of conspiracy
to commit securities fraud. Facing as much as 10 years in
prison, he told jurors he’s cooperating in the hope that he’ll
be treated more leniently when he’s sentenced.

His insider trading came to a halt when he was approached
by FBI agents in January 2009, he said.

In his plea hearing in July, Wang admitted passing tips to
Dipak Patel, a former portfolio manager at Sigma Capital, while
he worked for SAC Capital from 2002 to 2005. Patel hasn’t been
charged.

Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesman for SAC Capital, declined
to comment on Wang’s allegations.

Wang also said that when he worked for New York-based
Trellus from 2005 to 2008 he traded inside tips with Thomas
Hardin, the former analyst at Lanexa Global Management LP known
as “Tipper X” in the Galleon Group LLC insider-trading case.

In his testimony yesterday, Wang said he told Whitman that
Hardin was his source for information on Polycom.

Hardin Plea

Hardin, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and securities
fraud in 2010, is awaiting sentencing.

In a wiretapped conversation from January 2009, played for
the jury, Wang and Whitman discussed Khan, a former Intel Corp.
executive who was a key informant in the government’s insider-trading investigation, and Khan’s source for Google tips.

“Roomy had a mole there for awhile,” Whitman said in the
call.

“And?” Wang asked.

“Uh, she lost the mole,” Whitman said. “The woman wanted
her to take care of her for, uh, giving her the information.”

Khan testified earlier that she passed Whitman tips about
Google earnings, which she got from Shammara Hussain, a former
employee of Market Street Partners, an investor relations firm
that worked with the search engine company. Khan said that
Whitman advised her not to pay Hussain unless she wanted to
“share the jail cell” with her.

Khan, who testified for more than two days this week, broke
down in tears on Aug. 8 as she told jurors that she “lied a
number of times” and made decisions that “were really wrong.”

On cross-examination, Khan was questioned about a civil
lawsuit in which her former live-in maid claimed she was paid
less than minimum wage. In the January 2009 wiretap, Wang
appeared to refer to that incident.

“She doesn’t pay her maid,” Wang said in the recording.
“How’s she going to pay the contacts? That’s hilarious.”

The case is U.S. v. Whitman, 12-cr-00125, U.S. District
Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).